SAN JOSE — Taking aim at what Santa Clara County leaders call a crucial public safety need, a panel of experts met for the first time on Friday to discuss ways to keep small-time offenders with mental disorders or substance abuse problems out of the lockup in the first place.

The Jail Diversion and Behavioral Health Subcommittee was spawned by discussions about jail improvements following the death of a mentally ill inmate allegedly at the hands of guards last August.

When he died, Michael Tyree was homeless and in jail over a drug-related probation violation. A judge had wanted him sent to a mental health facility, but since no space was available it was deemed he was safer in jail than the streets.

“Diversion is certainly a good concept, but we have to have someplace to divert the individuals to,” said county Chief Operating Officer Gary Graves, who will be on the panel until his retirement this summer.

Graves said there’s high demand for mental health and substance abuse facilities but not only is it hard for community organizations to find space for such uses, it’s difficult to recruit and keep staff — a problem hardly unique to Santa Clara County.

Following Tyree’s death, the county bolstered funding for psychiatric workers in the jails. But the notion that the jails should not be the county’s main mental institution is shared by many, including Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley, who oversees mental health cases and will co-chair the panel with Supervisor Cindy Chavez.

“Working with the seriously mentally ill every day, I know this is a critical issue,” Manley told the panel and about 18 community members who attended the first meeting. “It’s wonderful we’re going to be collaborative and think of new ideas.”

Manley said that at any given time, there are 90 to 160 people in jail who should be released to community programs, but there just isn’t anywhere for them to go.

“We certainly need appropriate treatment for the mentally ill in custody, because that population is growing,” said Manley, a longtime advocate for alternatives to incarceration. “But that is not the answer. The answer is how to keep people out and how to keep them from going back.”

The subcommittee will meet about 10 more times in two-hour sessions through December. Chavez said there will be an opportunity to bring early ideas forth to the Board of Supervisors when they are working on next year’s budget in May.

Chavez said the county already works toward keeping recidivism rates down through its Re-Entry Center for those leaving jail, but they don’t currently have something that works on the other side of the coin.

“What we’re asking is, what does a non-entry center look like?” she said.

Manley said he’s seen successful models used elsewhere, and “we simply never really explored all the possibilities.”

“There are a lot of good ideas out there and we need to try to find the ones we can put into effect right now,” he said.

However, Manley was quick to add that the panel is “not about blaming.”

“It’s not helpful to argue about who should have done what,” he said. “We can’t change yesterday. All we can do is work on today and tomorrow.”

The first meeting looked at the proposed scope of work and reviewed what diversion programs already exist. Future meetings will examine practices being done elsewhere, the way mentally ill inmates are booked and screened, what community resources are available and how the new jail will facilitate mental health services, among other topics.

Graves said they are already considering three sites as possible alternatives to jail for appropriate clients including the former Muriel Wright Residential Center in South San Jose, which has about 45 slots. Other possible sites include the East Valley Pavilion Mental Health Center off Alum Rock Avenue and a former nursing home on Madrone Avenue in Morgan Hill.

“Generally this diversion would be focused on people not creating a danger to the community,” Graves said. “People who have mental health issues but can be treated in a residential setting that’s not locked but has appropriate staff.”

Kathy Forward, a committee member who is director of the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she is pleased to be representing the “family voice” after having loved ones find woeful care going through existing channels.

“This is going to be about system transformation — we need to look at what is working, what’s not working, and how can we fix what’s not working,” she said. “The system is sicker than the people in it.”

Eric Kurhi is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group based at The Mercury News. He covers Santa Clara County government and general assignment duties. An East Bay native, he has been editing and reporting at local newspapers since graduating from San Francisco State University in 1997.